The ending of The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno is still up in the air. That is because it will change for each performance, and several times throughout the night.
“There are 11 different endings,” said Jason Armstrong, the director of the show and a senior studying American Sign Language interpretation.
The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno is a murder mystery similar to that of Clue, and is the final Lost Flamingo Company production for the Fall Semester. Mr. Uno invites six guests to his mansion, and the night ends in a murderous fashion. But the question of “whodunit” is far from concrete.
During the intermission of each performance, audience members will rank on a ballot the five out of 11 characters who they think are most likely to have been the murderer. After a tally of the votes, the cast will act out the scenarios associated with the top five suspects.
This level of audience interaction is one thing Armstrong said he liked most about the show.
“It gives more of an incentive to the audience,” he said. “They have a voice in how the show goes … The audience essentially chooses act two. Depending on the ending chosen, different people are the perpetrator and different people die.”
Though it is a defining characteristic of the show, the opportunity for multiple endings has presented challenges to the actors.
“We learned all 11 endings,” said Lincoln Sklar, who plays Ms. Daphne and is a senior studying strategic communications. “The hard part is that a lot of the lines are similar from one ending to the next, so it can be difficult to keep them straight and separated.”
Despite the difficulties, Nick Ratliff, who plays General Spragmorton, said the alternate endings have provided the actors a lot of liberty, especially since Sklar added the characters are quite “over the top versions of real life people.”
“The script doesn’t really define them; it just gives the lines, so the director and the actor can work together to create the characters individually,” Ratliff, a freshman studying theater, said. “We have the freedom to explore the acting technique. Every night I may have a different voice for my character.”
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This article appeared in print under the headline "Lost Flamingo Company gives audience ability to choose their own show."
